


Skilled Artwork

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5389535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone has decorated a wall</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skilled Artwork

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'graffiti'

Skilled Artwork

by Bluewolf

Jim blinked as he stared at Simon, disbelief in every line of his body. His mouth opened and shut several times as he tried to muster up a coherent comment.

Finally he managed, "You can't be serious!"

"Unfortunately - " Simon began.

"You can't - you just can't - see that as a crime, let alone a major crime!"

There was a brisk knock on the door, which then opened and Blair - who had been checking a report with Serena when Simon called for them - walked in. "Rhonda said Simon wanted us, Jim. So - " he looked at their boss - "what earth-shattering case are you giving us?"

Jim looked helplessly at Simon.

"Directive straight from the Mayor," Simon said. "He wants Major Crime's top team to track down the vandals - his word, not mine - responsible for the graffiti now disfiguring the front wall of the bus station."

Blair's mouth opened and shut two or three times in an echo of Jim's earlier response to being told that.

"B...b...but... but... Depending on what it is, where it is, you can't call decorating a wall with paint a _crime_ \- a misdemeanor, possibly, in the same category as littering, but not a crime - and certainly not a major crime! And some graffiti is positively skilled artwork, giving what's been a dull, boring wall a bit of life."

"I gather that in this instance it's what it is that's the problem," Simon said. "Look, I fully agree with you both. There's no way this can be considered a major crime. But the Mayor gave his orders to the Commissioner, the Commissioner - probably muttering what you're saying now - passed it on to the Police Chief, he passed it on to me... and you two are the unfortunate guys at the end of the line who can't pass it on to anyone else."

"And while we're wasting time on this, we're not following up on the Howell murder, or the - " Jim began.

"Jim, you're preaching to the choir," Simon said. "Look, go out. Go to the bus station. Go through the motions of checking out whatever's been painted on the wall, then come back, and while Sandburg is typing out something that'll look as if we're taking this seriously, you can get on with going through the Howell evidence."

***

They drove to the bus station, pulled into the small parking lot there, and went in search of the decorated wall, not that there was any doubt about what was 'the front wall of the bus station' - in any case it was easily identifiable from the number of people standing in front of it and obviously appreciating what they were seeing.

The graffiti was, as Blair had suggested, very skilled artwork. It was also something that could be called libellous, though its interpretation depended totally on how dirty a mind the viewer had.

The image - it was one fairly big 'picture' - depicted a man instantly recognizable as the Mayor, surrounded by young girls, in a pose that could be called suggestive if the viewer was being cynical, and paternal or avuncular if the viewer had a totally innocent mind. It was, both men decided, a masterpiece of ambiguity.

It also brought to mind a minor scandal concerning the Mayor from earlier in the month, when a just-underage girl accused him of inappropriate 'touching'. Fortunately for him, the incident in question had been filmed by an uninvolved third party, and from the footage it had been clear that the girl had, very cleverly, moved into a position where the Mayor, making a general and unconsidered gesture, couldn't avoid touching her breast. It had also transpired that she was the niece of one of his political opponents...

Both men understood instantly why the Mayor had considered it a 'major crime'. However innocent the original incident had been, anything that brought it to mind could only be called deliberate, designed to throw doubt on the Mayor's moral honesty. And no matter how quickly someone was brought in to slap a layer of paint over it to hide it, a lot of people had already seen it, and both men were aware of photographs being taken of it - indeed, Blair would gladly have taken a photo of it himself, purely because of the skill involved in doing it, especially inside the few hours of darkness when the area was quiet that had been available to the artist. And even as they began to move forward, a vehicle drew up that had 'Cascade Times' emblazoned on its sides.

"We should stop them," Blair muttered.

Jim shook his head. "Even if we did, they'd come back. And how do we know Don Haas hasn't already been and taken _his_ pictures?" He stepped back, pulling Blair with him so that the press wouldn't see them. "I think the best thing the Mayor could do is come up with some sort of speech praising the skill of the artist, and saying something along the lines of how much it seemed to be 'encouraging young people, especially young women, to take an interest in political figures, and therefore in politics'. In fact, I don't think he should have it painted over, though he will."

"I suppose it's too much to hope that the artist, in a moment of utter stupidity, signed the thing?" Blair asked.

Jim grinned. "I wasn't looking for a signature, but seriously, I didn't see anything that looked like one."

The Press car drove away again, the reporter having taken his picture and - presumably - asked if anyone had any idea who was responsible. Jim and Blair moved forward again and pushed to the front of the crowd, as if they were mere members of the public come to see the picture and anxious to get as close a look as possible.

After a few minutes Jim shook his head and pulled Blair away again. "There's nothing to identify who did it. Too many people around for any residual smells to be identified."

Blair nodded. "I'd guess that whoever it was was linked in some way to the uncle of the girl who made the original accusation," he said, "but how could anyone ever prove it? Ah - and now it's history."

Another big van pulled up, but this time the men who got out were obviously workmen; armed with big rollers and trays of paint they began to cover the picture with what, in Blair's opinion, was an ugly layer of featureless graffiti.

From the muttering Jim could hear as the crowd dispersed, they were unimpressed by this official reaction to the picture. Several of the comments he overheard were along the lines of 'No smoke without fire', and he knew that the Mayor's reaction was indeed counter-productive.

***

They went back to the PD, and went to see Simon.

"Well?"

"Nothing there that could identify the culprit," Jim said. "And the Press - and I assume Don Haas - beat us there; we saw the Press car driving away. The Mayor would have been better to try to turn it to his advantage instead of having it slathered over with a layer of paint - covering it over definitely made it look as if he was covering up something."

"Just how offensive was it?" Simon asked.

"Basically it wasn't," Blair said. "It was really clever, and like Jim said, it would have been very easy for the Mayor to have given himself some good press out of it. As it is... he couldn't have been more stupid about it; he's made it look as if he really was guilty of groping that girl."

"Okay. Now you go and write up something so that I can tell the guys upstairs that we've done what we could, and then you can get on investigating what really is a major crime."

He watched them go, thinking that the Mayor, despite that single disproved accusation, mightn't be particularly sleazy... but he wasn't showing much sign of basic common sense.

But then... if he did have much basic common sense... would he be a politician?


End file.
